In June 1964, Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin was commissioned on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution dock. The dream of building a human-occupied deep ocean research submersible began eight years earlier, when participants at a symposium in Washington drafted a resolution that the U.S. develop a national program for undersea vehicles. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Alvin and its first tender, the 105-foot catamaran Lulu, which was built in 1965 in Woods Hole using surplus Navy mine sweeping pontoons. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

(Woods Hole Oceanogaphic Institution)

Alvin has gone through a major overhaul about every three years to upgrade various components and check safety systems. All of the sub's components have been replaced at least once, so that none of the original Alvin remains. (Photo by Terri Corbett, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

In 1967, during dive 202, Alvin was attacked by a swordfish on the bottom at about 2,000 feet. The fish became trapped in Alvin?s skin and was brought back to the surface. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

In 1968, Alvin's cradle support cables failed andAlvin slid into the water and sank to the bottom in 5,000 feet of water. In 1969 (above) Alvin was recovered by the DSV Aluminaut (a submersible from the Reynolds Aluminum Company) and the R/V Mizar. (Alvin recovery 1969)

(Woods Hole Oceanogaphic Institution)

(Woods Hole Oceanogaphic Institution)

The research vessel Atlantis II, owned by the National Science Foundation, joined the WHOI fleet in 1963. It cruised over one million miles as both a general-purpose research ship and as a tender for Alvin from 1983 until the ship's retirement in 1996. (Photo by Larry Workman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Recommended

Expedition Leader Pat Hickey becomes just the second submersible pilot to dive more than 500 times in Alvin.

History of Alvin

The dream of building a manned deep ocean research submersible
first started to move toward reality on February 29, 1956. Allyn
Vine of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) attended
a symposium in Washington, where participants drafted a resolution
that the U.S. develop a national program for manned undersea
vehicles. From this beginning the community eventually obtained
the Trieste bathyscaphe, but it was quite large and not
very maneuverable -- a better craft was needed.

In 1960, Charles Momsen, head of the Office of Naval Research
(ONR), petitioned for scientists to rent a submersible with
ONR funds, and found WHOI investigators interested. In the spring
of 1962, after unsuccessful negotiations with various submersible
builders to rent a sub, Vine and others at Woods Hole went requested
bids to buy a small submersible based on drawings made by Bud
Froehlich for a vehicle he called the Seapup. General
Mills won the bid for $472,517 for an unnamed 6,000-foot submersible.

The firm of Hahn & Clay, under the direction of Larry Megow,
fabricated three 6-foot diameter HY-100 steel spheres for General
Mills in December 1962, and cut the window holes in the spring
of 1963. Spheres 2 and 3 were later used for the Navy’s
Sea Cliff and Turtle. No one at that time knew
the true capabilities of the spheres, so they built three for
redundancy. One was to be tested to destruction in February
1964, and plexiglass windows were installed by Southwest Research
Institute. The test chamber, however, proved to be inadequate:
the chamber lid blew off at 9,676 feet equivalent pressure!

Meanwhile, the Woods Hole operational team
had begun to form, calling themselves the Deep Submergence Group. They started using the
name Alvin
for the sub to honor the prime mover and creative inspiration for the
vehicle, Allyn Vine, a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. The name also benefitted from belonging to a popular
cartoon chipmunk, but Allyn Vine was the true namesake.

Litton Systems took over the building of the
Alvin and on May 26, 1964 delivered it to Woods Hole,
where it was commissioned on June 5. Froehlich, Vine, and pilot
Bill Rainnie made the first two dives. There were a total of
77 shallow, tethered dives in or near Woods Hole to maximum
depths of 70 feet, with the first free dive of the submersible
taking place on Aug. 4, 1964 to 35 feet.

In 1965 a local Cape Cod craftsman constructed
the sub’s first tender from a pair of surplus Navy pontoons,
and the catamaran Lulu (named after Vine’s mother)
was born. In March Lulu and Alvin headed off on
their first voyage to Andros Island in the Bahamas to inspect
the ARTEMIS underwater listening array at Tongue of the Ocean,
which was the original justification Momsen had used to obtain
funding for construction. They first stopped at Port Canaveral
for trials, then moved on to the Bahamas where they made a successful
12-hour, unmanned tethered 7,500-foot test dive. Alvin
now had two pilots, Rainnie and Marvin McCamis, and on July
20, 1965 they made their first 6,000-foot dive for the Navy
to obtain certification.

The following paragraphs give a brief description of annual
activities since those early years.

1966

An Air Force B-52 and a tanker collided over Spain, dropping
an H-bomb in the Mediterranean off Palomares, Spain, in January.
The Alvin team was selected to attempt recovery in conjunction
with the Navy's CURV towed vehicle. In February 1966, Alvin
and its support vans were loaded into two Air Force cargo aircraft
at Otis Air Force Base and flown to Rota, Spain. During the
next two months, Alvin, operating from a Navy LSD, searched
the ocean floor off Spain for the lost H-bomb. The bomb was
located for the first time on March 15, but was subsequently
lost during an attempt to attach lift lines. The bomb slid down-slope
to deeper water, and the search continued. The bomb was relocated
on April 2 and recovered by CURV April 7. Alvin returned
to Cape Cod for completion of the overhaul begun before the
Spanish adventure.

1967

Alvin returned to the Bahamas for Navy dives with subsequent
transit north for biology/geology dives on the Blake Plateau
and off Cape Charles. During Dive 202, on July 6, Alvin
was attacked by a swordfish on the bottom at about 2,000 feet.
The fish became trapped in Alvin’s skin and was
brought back to the surface (and cooked for dinner).

Alvin completed a series of dives south of New England
in the canyons and along the continental slope for geology,
biology, thermal studies and sound measurements. On Dive 209,
in the Hydrographer Canyon area, a Navy F6F aircraft was found,
photographed, and surveyed. It was later identified as being
lost overboard from a carrier during practice runs in 1944 (the
pilot escaped).

On Dive 224, September 24, the mechanical arm was lost during
a rough recovery. The arm was subsequently found and recovered
on dive 236 on October 15. It was reconditioned and reinstalled.

1968

A series of dives were made to look for submerged whales, Navy
dives surveyed the tops of seamounts for a new acoustic test
range and geology and biology studies were completed. During
the launch for Dive 308 on October 16, Alvin’s
cradle support cables failed and Alvin slid into the
water and sank to the bottom in 5,000 feet of water. Ed Bland,
pilot, received some bruises and a sprained ankle while exiting
from the sub. Poor weather conditions and insufficient recovery
equipment prevented recovery during the remainder of the year.

1969

Alvin remained on the bottom until Labor Day. The DSV
Aluminaut (a submersible from the Reynolds Aluminum Company)
and the R/V Mizar assisted in the recovery, which required
placement of a lifting bar into Alvin’s hatch (Aluminaut
pilots had to break the sail in order to accomplish this). Mizar
then raised Alvin to 50 feet, where divers wrapped the
sub with lines and nets to prevent loss of any pieces. Alvin
was towed to Martha’s Vineyard, where a crane mounted
on a barge pulled it out of the water. Overall, there was very
little structural damage to the submersible (except for the
sail). Lunches left on board were soggy but edible. Discovery
that near-freezing temperatures and the lack of decaying oxygen
at depth aided preservation opened up new areas of biological
and chemical research.

Alvin underwent a major overhaul after its ten-month
dunking.

1971

Alvin’s first post-loss dive was 309 on May 17.
In mid-June a permanent bottom station was established on the
continental slope south of Martha’s Vineyard. The station
was regularly revisited for many years. When Ruth Turner visited
the bottom station on Dive 345, it was the first science dive
with a woman observer.

The Gulf of Maine and the Straits of Florida provided sites
for the next series of dives. On Dive 364 Alvin was attacked
and hit by a large blue marlin while on the bottom off Grand
Bahama Island. The fish did some damage to the underwater lights
and sail and much damage to himself.

1972

A series of dives were completed for biology at the Martha’s
Vineyard station, for geology and biology in the Hudson Canyon,
and in the Gulf of Maine (geology) for navigational and rock
drill experiments.

1973

During the spring, a new titanium pressure hull and variable
ballast system were installed. After a series of simulated dives
in a Maryland pressure test tank, Alvin was officially
certified to 12,000 feet.

1974

Project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) provided
our first close-up look at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge along with
the French submersibles Cyana and Archimede. National
Geographic ran articles on the Project in the May 1975 issue,
authored by WHOI scientists Bob Ballard and Jim Heirtzler.

1975

Alvin completed a series of dives in the Bahamas (biology),
at Grand Bahama Island (geology), Blake Plateau (biology), and
made a radioactive waste dump site survey. A new deep (12,000
feet) bottom station south of Cape Cod was established.

1976

Alvin was certified for 4,000 meters (13,124 feet). A
series of geology dives took the sub to the Cayman Trough, and
Navy dives were made near St. Croix and Tongue of the Ocean.
Biology studies were carried out on the shelf, slope, and canyons
south of Cape Cod. A waste drum was recovered from the radioactive
waste disposal site off New Jersey.

1977

Alvin traveled through the Panama Canal for the first
time. Geology work in the Galapagos Rift was completed during
February and March. The major discovery of an abundance of exotic
animal life on and in the immediate proximity of warm water
vents prompted theories about the generation of life. Since
no light can penetrate through the deep waters, scientists concluded
that the animal chemistry here is based on chemosynthesis, not
photosynthesis.

Return passage was made through the Canal for April dives in
the Cayman Trough (a continuation of a geology investigation).
During this series a Nicaraguan earthquake occurred and was
plainly felt by Alvin while submerged.

1978

A new titanium structural frame was installed. Radioactive waste
and biology studies continued off the East Coast. A second trip
to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was made for plate tectonic (geology)
studies at the spreading center.

1979

Transit to Panama was followed by biology and geology cruises
to the Galapagos in January and February. National Geographic
filmed dives for the highly acclaimed special “Dive to
the Edge of Creation.”

In April and May Alvin made its first trip to the East
Pacific Rise at 21 deg North. These geology dives revealed hot
water vents or “black smokers” spewing forth super-heated
water at 350 degC (650 degF). Many of the same animals found
at the Galapagos vents were found at this location off Mexico.
Further dives near San Diego, Tamayo Fracture Zone, East Pacific
Rise, and Galapagos were made from June through December.

1980

Alvin completed its 1,000th dive at the Galapagos Rift
in January.

Alvin returned to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Kane and
Oceanographer Fracture Zones during June and July for geology
studies as well as additional dives along the East Coast, the
Bahamas, and St. Croix. The BBC filmed a television special.

1981

Extensive work continued in the St. Croix area, after which
Alvin returned to Galapagos and the East Pacific Rise
following dives in the Panama Basin.

1982

The schedule included dives at East Pacific Rise and Guaymas
Basin. CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite made Dive 1211 to the
hot vents. Dives at the Panama Basin were followed by a long
transit to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Alvin returned to
Woods Hole in August and completed local studies for biology,
geology, and ocean engineering followed by dives in the Florida
Straits and the Providence Channel.

1983

A major Alvin overhaul in Woods Hole included the addition
of a T-fitting on the sub’s frame to allow for a single-point
overhead lift system, replacing the elevator method. At the
same time, R/V Atlantis II was prepared for its new role
as mother ship and tender for Alvin. These extensive
modifications were conducted during AII’s regular
mid-life refit. A large A-frame was added to the stern for Alvin
launch and recovery.

1984

Alvin and Atlantis II departed Woods Hole in January
for Charleston, SC. Final preparations and harbor tests, including
the first actual Alvin launch and recovery with the A-frame,
were followed by a geology cruise to the Blake Plateau. Several
rough water recoveries were made at sea, proving the A-frame
system could work under less than ideal conditions.

During a March geology/biology cruise on the West Florida Escarpment
in the Gulf of Mexico, a series of bottom cold water vent communities
were discovered. The animals found were very similar in appearance
to those in the Pacific.

Alvin transited to the Pacific for further dives in the
Panama Basin and on the East Pacific Rise. In mid-April the
towed camera sled ANGUS discovered a new vent field to the south
of the dive area, and Alvin visited it.

Dives at the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridge off the coasts of
Oregon and Washington in July revealed black smoker hydrothermal
vent activity in this northern spreading center.

1985

Much of Alvin’s work during 1985 focused on the
vent communities at Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California,
the East Pacific Rise off Mexico, and near the Galapagos Islands.
Successful tests were made of new deep ocean sampling and photographic
equipment designed for control from within Alvin. In
November, Alvin returned to Woods Hole to begin a five-month
overhaul.

1986

The first part of the year was spent completing the major overhaul,
with improvements made to the submersible’s propulsion,
electrical, and instrumentation systems. The large stern and
small side lift propellers were replaced by six small electric
thrusters to increase speed and maneuverability. Brushless DC
motors designed specifically for Alvin replaced the hydraulic
propulsion system, providing increased reliability, efficiency,
and performance.

Other improvements were made to Alvin during the overhaul.
Safety release devices, payload capability, personnel sphere
internal arrangement and the data logging/display system were
upgraded.

In May, certification dives were held in Bermuda before Alvin
returned to service. Dives on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at newly-found
hot water vents discovered new species of shrimp and a six-sided
animal thought to be extinct. In July, considerable media attention
focused on dives to the wreck of RMS Titanic. Alvin
made 12 dives to test a prototype robotic vehicle called Jason
Jr. and to photographically document the wreck. After several
other cruises in the North Atlantic, Alvin departed Woods
Hole in late September to begin a two-year voyage into the Pacific.
Year-end dives were made in the eastern Pacific with a holiday
port call in San Diego.

1987

Short cruises in the Santa Catalina Basin in early January were
followed by a series of dives on Loihi Seamount, south of the
Hawaiian Island chain, as scientists studied the underwater
volcano which will eventually be a new Hawaiian island.

Dives in the western Pacific near the Mariana Islands kept Alvin
busy for much of the spring and summer, with new hydrothermal
vent communities discovered in that area. A port call in Tokyo
in early August brought thousands of visitors, including Japan’s
Crown Prince Akihito. Transit to Oregon followed as Alvin
began a series of dives on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off Washington
and Oregon to continue ocean floor studies. Year-end dives in
the Santa Catalina Basin were followed in November by drydocking
of Atlantis II in San Diego for routine hull repair and
maintenance.

1988

Biology dives in the Santa Catalina Basin off San Diego in January
preceded extensive biological and chemical studies in the Guaymas
Basin. A trip to the East Pacific Rise in March saw geological
work on ridge processes and was the site of Alvin Dive
2000 on March 22nd. Atlantis II and Alvin headed
farther south in April to the Galapagos area for more research
at the vent sites first explored in the mid-1970’s. A
series of dives on the Oregon Continental Margin and Juan de
Fuca Ridge began in early June to measure geological and geochemical
processes as well as heat flow rates at "hot smoker" locations.
In October, a benthic drifting algae and geologic study was
conducted in Monterey Canyon, followed by more dives in Catalina
Basin. In late November, the ship and submersible visited a
biological study site at an underwater volcano off Acapulco,
then transited the Panama Canal en route to Woods Hole.

1989

The first seven months of 1989 saw Alvin undergo its
triennial overhaul, with replacement of the sub’s through-hull
electrical penetrators the major task. Atlantis II, meanwhile,
carried scientists to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for the first nonsubmersible
studies since the 1983 conversion. A series of test and certification
dives near Bermuda started the diving research season in mid-August,
followed by work on the continental rise off New Jersey and
biological community studies at the New York Bight sludge dumpsite.
Alvin started December with more geological sampling
on the rise south of New England, and following the holidays
departed on Leg 1 of Voyage 125, scheduled to keep the ship
operating away from Woods Hole for almost three years.

1990

The first score of dives this year was spent exploring geochemical
aspects of active hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
south of the Azores. After transiting to Jacksonville, Atlantis
II entered the shipyard for a month of maintenance concurrent
with minor Alvin upkeep.

In mid-March the submersible resumed diving in the Gulf of Mexico,
visiting hydrocarbon seeps, brine pools and abyssal basins to
catalog new biological species. Following transit through the
Panama Canal, the vessels stopped briefly in Costa Rica to embark
scientists before conducting geological structure measurements
in the Hess Deep Rift Valley west of the Galapagos. The next
port stop was Guayaquil, Ecuador, before diving continued at
the Galapagos Rift, East Pacific Rise and Guaymas Basin.

Transiting north in July, Alvin began work on the Juan
de Fuca Ridge in support of geophysical crustal studies, followed
by interdisciplinary work for NOAA on the southern end of the
ridge in August. The ship worked its way back south during September,
with dives in Monterey Canyon en route to San Diego. Twin dive
series on Fieberling Seamount west of California occupied the
majority of the fall, while short cruises to the Santa Catalina
Basin in early and late November allowed studies of benthic
biology and Alvin’s Navy inspection.

1991

The diving season opened in February in the Santa Catalina Basin
where studies of whale bone biological communities were conducted.
Following a transit to the Gulf of California, diving continued
in the Guaymas Basin in support of hydrothermal vent system
experiments. From there the ship and submersible returned to
the East Pacific Rise for two studies of hydrothermal, volcanological
and geochemical processes near ODP drill sites and the Siqueiros
Transform. After transit back to San Diego in late May, Alvin
entered a maintenance period in which the main batteries were
replaced and a Navy certification audit was successfully completed.

One week prior to the end of the maintenance period the Alvin
Group was requested to assist the Navy in the recovery of its
CURV III towed ROV system, lost off the coast of southern California.
Alvin was quickly reassembled and made four search dives
before finally recovering the vehicle on July 1st.

Following the recovery, the ship headed north to Oregon to begin
a season of operations on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The first
cruise supported the initial stage of interdisciplinary studies
of hydrothermal flange evolution, followed by biological examination
of mollusc populations. A NOAA Vents Program cruise followed,
featuring chemical and geological work on the southern ridge.
During a second hydrothermal flange cruise in early September
five auxiliary dives were conducted to support Office of Naval
Technology experiments and to obtain data and samples from a
previously instrumented Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) bore hole.
The last Ridge leg of the year revisited the northern vent sites
for isotope experiments and also revisited the ODP site for
maintenance of the bore hole instrumentation.

After a month-long shipyard overhaul of Atlantis II,
the final cruise of the 1991 dive year visited the East Pacific
Rise for plankton studies in hydrothermal vent plumes.

1992

Our first cruise in early February gave the Alvin operations
team a rare chance to conduct a series of engineering test dives
off San Diego. Experts in the photographic, underwater video
and acoustic fields were invited to participate in five shallow
dives to recommend improvements in Alvin’s capabilities.
Experiments included calibration of the still camera fields
of view, evaluation of a new generation of video lighting and
qualitative analysis of optimum light configurations, exposure
tests for various cameras, application testing of a low-cost
fathometer, and vehicle attitude/performance analysis. Extensive
testing of the sub’s hydraulic system resulted in corrective
measures designed to bring performance up to advertised capability.
Constructive external input from industry participants has already
fostered interest in both real-time, 3-D graphical display of
Alvin’s position in a navigated volume and the
potential for "video inertial navigation" from computer processing
of video images.

Scientific dives began on the East Pacific Rise in late February,
where a multi-institutional team of investigators studied hydrothermal
and geochemical processes in support of ODP work. The Rise area
at 9 deg N had been found to be active during a late-1991 dive
series, so experiments during this cruise provided an unusual
temporal look at vent processes. Late in March, the Rise at
21 deg N was the site of geochemical sampling of hydrothermal
fields, and in April scientists returned to the Rise at 10 deg
N to complete experiments initiated with the French submersible
Nautile in 1991.

Following a transit through the Panama Canal in early May, Alvin
and Atlantis II made a port call in Galveston before
beginning studies of chemosynthetic ecosystems at two sites
in the Gulf of Mexico. Two dives were made for specimen collection
at the West Florida Escarpment cold seeps, and the final dive
of Voyage 125 allowed a video transect of megafaunal habitats
on the Continental Rise near Block Canyon. The ship and sub
returned to Woods Hole on June 10th after 575 days at sea, 367
dives and 894 days away from home port.

After a six-week layup the vessels departed
WHOI in early August for studies of biological communities at
Deepwater Dumpsite 106 off New York. Upon return to Woods Hole
mid-month, Alvin began a major overhaul period.

1993

The overhaul period ended in mid-March with certification and
engineering dives off Bermuda. Two subsequent dives for the
Royal Ontario Museum and the Bermuda Zoological Society sought
to catalog biodiversity and biota zonation on the flanks of
the island pedestal and nearby seamounts. We next embarked on
a seismic studies cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but mechanical/electrical
problems with Alvin’s new pressure-tolerant motor
controllers resulted in a radically shortened dive program.
Repairs were effected during a maintenance period in Bermuda
in April, after which the sub successfully completed three dive
series back at the ridge, including work at a newly-discovered
vent field south of the Azores. One Deep Water Dumpsite revisit
cruise was undertaken in mid-July before the now-familiar transit
through the Canal to the Pacific study areas. Fall explorations
on the Juan de Fuca Ridge focussed on geomorphology, geochemistry
and the retrieval of data from instruments left on ODP well
holes. In October Alvin’s schedule was modified
to include a cruise to the Axial Seamount area to investigate
recent volcanic eruptions in the hydrothermal vent field; use
of the former Navy underwater early-detection acoustic system
had alerted scientists to possible activity. Evidence of new
formations was indeed found at the site, proving the validity
of this new tool for event detection.

A shipyard period in November preceded the final voyage of the
year, to the East Pacific Rise in support of biological community
temporal studies.

1994

This year began as the last one ended, with four lengthy cruises
to the East Pacific Rise and Costa Rica Accretionary Wedge.
Most of the work was in pursuit of geological and biological
programs, with an added dive for salvage purposes: a lost University
of Washington rock drill was recovered in late January.

Two milestones were reached this year, the first in early February.
An arduous series of calculations and tests, performed in conjunction
with the NAVSEA branch of the Navy, had proved that Alvin’s
pressure hull was capable of withstanding even greater pressures
than it had yet been subjected to, while still maintaining the
substantial safety factor required for human occupancy. An increase
in our depth rating by as little as 500 meters (to 4,500 meters
or 14,764 feet) would allow investigators to explore an additional
20% of the ocean bottom! Replacement of the steel motor controller
housings would be required due to their insufficient thickness,
but once new titanium units had been installed the path was
cleared to recertification. On February 5 three Alvin
pilots made the historic dive to our new depth limit, paving
the way for additional deep dives during the Costa Rica voyage.

The second date of note was June 5, 1994: Alvin’s
30th birthday. Most frequently asked question during the ceremonies
held at Woods Hole and attended by numerous military and governmental
dignitaries: does any part of the original Alvin remain
in use today? The answer: no, all parts of the sub have been
replaced at one point or another during her illustrious career
as a deep ocean research platform, including the frame and pressure
hull.

As with many government-funded operations in the US of late,
the Alvin program was required to yield to budget pressures
and curtail work by 60 days this year. A 30-day stand down in
May was followed by a return to the Juan de Fuca area, where
scientists continued time series measurements at hydrothermal
vent field sites. A crew from a nature films production company
recorded dives on the northern Ridge for inclusion in a television
special on underwater research. In late summer-early fall a
team from Scripps Institute of Oceanography studied benthic
boundary layer biological communities at a site off California,
followed by three final cruises to the Guaymas Basin and East
Pacific Rise. A new, submersible-mounted rock drill was successfully
tested, retrieving samples of volcanic material previously unreachable.
1994 ended with a transit to and the final half of the mandated
stand down in Woods Hole.

1995

The first voyage of the year took ship and submersible back
to the TAG hydrothermal site on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to complete
dives lost two years earlier because of motor controller problems.
The next leg visited an ODP well site to collect data from emplaced
instruments, followed by a transit through the canal and on
to the bottom station at 9 deg N on the EPR, where the progress
and growth of biological communities were cataloged. Working
their way up the Latin American coast, investigators stopped
off California for more biology studies, then proceeded on to
the Juan de Fuca for a very full season (81 dives) of multi-disciplinary
work. Most programs were continuations of previous field research,
but new cameras, sonar systems and other sensors recently added
to the sub allowed new looks at vent features and fauna. Laser
range finders mounted on the sponson now permit scientists to
measure the size of objects in the still and video camera fields
of view, and vastly improved lighting facilitates close-up observation.
Alvin’s two hydraulic manipulators can reach and
retrieve artifacts on the bottom, and also activate a variety
of water and sediment samplers developed for deep sea use.

Alvin recorded Dive 3000 on September 20. A live underwater
telephone/satellite link allowed shoreside dignitaries to congratulate
the pilot and observers during the dive.

Insufficient funding forced a stand down period in October,
which was followed by a return to the EPR. The rock drill was
again used off the coast of Mexico, and numerous temporal experiments
were deployed. The year ended with a transit to San Diego for
the holidays.

1996

With an overhaul scheduled for the latter part of the year and
funded diving programs scarce, Alvin’s operating
season would be short in 1996. It would also be the final year
of operation for our support ship Atlantis II, due to
be retired after 33 years of service.

After a week-long biological study of decaying whale carcasses
in the Santa Catalina (California) channel, the Operations Team
entered a stand down period from mid-January to mid-March. Starting
up again in San Diego, three engineering dives were undertaken
off the coast, followed by completion of the whale time-series
studies. After a transit south to Manzanillo, Mexico, the month
of April was spent examining fluid and light emissions at the
East Pacific Rise hydrothermal vent field. Biomass studies and
nighttime plume mapping were also part of the program. The investigators
were debarked in Manzanillo prior to a two-week transit through
the Panama Canal to Woods Hole.

Another stand down during the month of May allowed the crew
some time off. The final two cruises of the operating season
were to sites on the western Atlantic continental margin off
New Jersey; the first to continue time series work at the deep
water sludge dump site, and the second to conduct benthic flux,
microelectrode profiling and sediment coring experiments.

Atlantis II returned to Woods Hole for the last time
on July 3. Alvin was lifted off on the 9th and transferred
to the dockside hangar to begin overhaul. The ship was stripped
of all submersible support gear except the launch/recovery A-frame,
which would be transferred to our new vessel Atlantis
in Mississippi in late fall. Over 500 people gathered on the
pier in late July to bid farewell to the AII, with many
fond memories of past cruises shared. In her 13 years as submersible
tender, the vessel sailed all of the world’s temperate
oceans and allowed Alvin to reach locations our former
tender Lulu could never have visited. AII, renamed
Antares, will be continuing research under a new owner
in the chilly waters off the Pacific northwest.

1997

Alvin completed the triennial major overhaul at the end
of March. No major upgrades occurred during this maintenance
period, so a majority of the effort was devoted to dismantling,
testing and reassembly of all mechanical, electrical and electronic
systems. Small stress cracks in the titanium frame and syntactic
foam flotation blocks were repaired, and numerous cables and
connectors were replaced.

Our new deep submergence support vessel Atlantis arrived
at WHOI April 11 following two weeks of builder’s trials
on the way north from the shipyard in Mississippi. A large crowd
of employees and dignitaries assembled on the dock to welcome
the latest addition to our research fleet, the first new vessel
WHOI has received since Oceanus in 1975. Fitting out
and loading with Alvin and ship stores took over a month,
with many modifications needed to stow all the gear. Ship and
submersible left WHOI on June 2 for Bermuda to begin the Alvin
recertification process, a series of post-overhaul test and
engineering dives culminating in dives to 4,500 meters.

The first science dives of 1997 took place
during the transit from Bermuda to the Azores and a subsequent
4-week voyage, where a science party from Great Britain’s
British Ridge Project and a film crew from the BBC studied Mid-Atlantic
Ridge (MAR) hydrothermal vent vent colonies and biological interactions.
During this dive series Alvin and the French submersible
Nautile met and filmed each other on the ocean bottom
during two dives, an historic first for these subs.

In early August Atlantis transited through the Panama
Canal to San Diego to begin work in the eastern Pacific. Three
dives near San Diego for study of age-dependent bioturbation
of deep sea sediments led this portion of the schedule, conducted
by researchers from the University of Hawaii.

At the end of the month, Jason (WHOI’s primary
remotely operated vehicle) was loaded on board the ship in preparation
for our first test of Deep Submergence Group joint ROV/sub operations.
This is the work Atlantis was designed for, allowing
investigators to use the complete suite of underwater tools
from the same platform anywhere in the world. A test lowering
of Jason was conducted during the transit north to Astoria,
Oregon, followed by two lengthy cruises to the Juan de Fuca
hydrothermal region for geological experiments. Jason and Alvin
were used during alternate periods to provide large- and fine-scale
sampling capabilities, respectively, and performed flawlessly
during repeated dives to the ridge vents despite deteriorating
weather conditions.

In late October the ship headed south once again toward better
sea states, and ended the operating season with two voyages
to the East Pacific Rise biological time-series site. Continuing
studies here reveal growth rates of animal communities near
hot water vents and illustrate interactions between species
in the hostile environment. One last transit back north, and
the vessel arrived in San Diego for the holidays on Christmas
Eve.

1998

Alvin began the 1998 operating season at the end of March
following a shipyard/NAVSEA post-shakedown interval for Atlantis.
The first two dives allowed us to perform some engineering tests
off the coast of San Diego. Science dives commenced in early
April with a six-dive set for investigators from Skidaway and
Florida State studying cage performance relative to benthic
biology. A short transit to the Guaymas Basin area followed
mid-month to allow an ONR program to conduct a 7-dive interactive
field program utilizing Atlantis and the ROV Jason.
WHOI investigators next got a chance for further microbiological
work in the Basin at 27N and 21N before heading into Manzanillo,
Mexico in early May.

The Northern East Pacific Rise (9N) next received the sub’s
attention, when WHOI researchers returned to the Biotransect
site to continue temporal studies begun several years earlier.
A six-dive series was scheduled after that to revisit a biological
site off San Diego. Then the ship headed north to take advantage
of the weather window, commencing dives on the Juan de Fuca
Ridge in mid-June. The first leg allowed scientists from Lehigh
and Scripps to examine hydrocarbon sequestration as gas hydrates
and diagenetic carbonate deposits. The next two cruises saw
investigators return to Ocean Drilling Program boreholes on
the continental margin for in-situ measurements of interstitial
water and ambient light. Finally, scientists embarked on 10-day
leg for biological cataloging and nutritional interaction research
on the northern segment of the Ridge.

After making the transit south to the San Diego area in early
August, Alvin concluded the cage performance studies
in the Santa Barbara Channel begun in April. A short maintenance
period preceeded an extended cruise to the southern Pacific,
which began in September with a transit to and work near Easter
Island on the East Pacific Rise at 18S. During early fall investigators
recovered and redeployed long-term monitoring instruments left
during a 1997 Shinkai 6500/Yokosuka cruise and examined gas
and fluid chemistry of hydrothermal systems on a superfast Rise
spreading center. These two legs involved a total of 35 dives
and required 76 days of ship time before returning to Manzanillo,
Mexico in mid-November. Another time-series cruise to the Northern
EPR was up next, where investigators from USC and the University
of Delaware studied dispersal potential of hydrothermal vent
animals. The final leg of the 1998 season again took the ship
south toward Easter Island for volcanological research on the
Rise at 18S, with the leg scheduled to end at Easter Island
in mid-January 1999.

1999

The manned component of the Deep Submergence Facility, Alvin
aboard Atlantis, began the 1999 operating season with
the continuation of a cruise for Rutgers and NOAA investigators
conducting volcanological research on the Southern East Pacific
Rise at 18° S, with the leg ending at Easter Island in mid-January.
From there scientists from Hawaii and William & Mary continued
volcanological experiments in the mid-ocean ridge area south
of the equator, focusing on geology and biological communities
at fast spreading centers. The DSL-120 sonar vehicle,
ABE AUV and Alvin were all employed for this work before
the vessel headed north to port in Manzanillo, Mexico. The third
leg of the year took a team of Duke researchers to the Hess
Deep in the equatorial Pacific to study the geology of oceanic
crust, where the Argo ROV was used to provide broad-scale
imaging prior to inspection by the submersible. Starting in
mid-April from Manzanillo, the final two cruises of early-season
East Pacific Rise work consisted of biological experiments at
the northern segment of the ridge, first for WHOI/Harvard scientists
and later for those from Delaware and Rutgers. These programs
were continuations of temporal observations designed to give
investigators insight into long-term fluctuations in species
populations and dynamics. Following this work, the vessel docked
in San Diego for a two-week maintenance period in early June.

Taking advantage of the summer weather window, Alvin
next moved north to the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of
Oregon and Washington. First up were scientists from Oregon
State and Lehigh, who deployed benthic sampling devices such
as corers and flowmeters on the Cascadia accretionary prism
to characterize conditions at active seafloor vents. Throughout
much of July and August we completed another first for Alvin:
work in the Gulf of Alaska at 51-57° N, where investigators
based at the West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research
Center coordinated study of species diversity, flux measurements,
hydrogeologic, volcanic and tectonic processes on various seamounts.
Next the vessel headed back to the Juan de Fuca area for data
recovery from six long-term instrumented ODP borehole seals,
with additional dives for in-situ measurement of dissolved hydrogen
and sulfates in hydrothermal fluids. The final leg in this region
in late September carried Pennsylvania and Harvard researchers
to the Endeavour Ridge for examination of biological interactions
in Vestimentiferan aggregations, followed by a transit south
to San Diego at the beginning of October.

The next cruise, in the Santa Catalina Basin just off San Diego,
took Hawaii scientists back to a whale skeleton study site to
continue observation of fauna affinities and behavior. A second
two-week maintenance period will followed in San Diego. Two
final legs to the East Pacific Rise rounded out the year; both
focussing on temporal study of biological communities in the
9-10° N region. Atlantis ended the year in San Diego
December 28.

2000

The 2000 Alvin operating year began in San Diego with
a transit to the Guaymas Basin area in the Gulf of California.
The first science cruise allowed Delaware and Penn State scientists
to study pyrite deposits, a crucial stratum for microbial life
in extreme hydrothermal environments. A return visit to the
East Pacific Rise 9N site followed, where investigators conducted
near-bottom geophysical traverses across the ridge axis using
a gravimeter. The sub and support ship then returned to San
Diego for a six-week maintenance period in the schedule.

Oregon State researchers lead off the next segment of the program,
with experiments to characterize the sources and consequences
of fluid discharge along the San Clemente fault zone off southern
California. Investigators from Rutgers took the sub back to
the East Pacific Rise in April to continue time series analyses
and experiments at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. USC scientists
headed a team that next worked in that area, seeking to document
dispersal potential of hydrothermal vent animals.

In early June Atlantis steamed north to the Juan de Fuca
region to conduct four science cruises during the summer weather
window. Univ. of Washington investigators began with multidisciplinary
vent studies at previously established hydrothermal sites, followed
by attempts to characterize distribution of phototrophic organisms
by scientists from WHOI, the Univ. of Alaska and William &
Mary. Miami and Scripps researchers then conducted in-situ
experiments at an ODP borehole to study the formation of authigenic
carbonates and gas hydrates. The last voyage in the region allowed
UW scientists to study the effects of tidal fluctuations on
fluid sampling.

In late September Atlantis began the long transit back
to Woods Hole, stopping in the Gulf of Mexico to investigate
stability and change in chemosynthetic communities for scientists
from Texas A&M. From there the ship and sub proceeded to
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge via Bermuda, where the last leg of the
operating season gave Scripps investigators an opportunity to
perform structural mapping of the eastern Atlantic ridge-transform
intersection. The ship returned to WHOI in mid-December, when
Alvin began a six-month overhaul.

2001

In year 2001, the WHOI Deep Submergence Group began a triennial
Alvin overhaul. Among the items upgraded this time
were thruster motor controllers, the in-hull computer system,
data logger and camera systems. The external 35mm film camera
system was retired in favor of video frame grabbing capability
and digital photography. Alvin recertification dives
began in mid-June, and by the end of that month the sub was
ready once again to undertake science work.

An eighteen-dive program for NSF on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
was the first program scheduled, with the focus on biology
and geology of hydrothermal vent sites. That cruise ended
in Ponta Delgada, Azores in late July. Another NSF program
was next up, which saw an IMAX camera used to film the underwater
ridge habitat for later inclusion in a feature film. Several
of those dives had only two occupants in the submersible since
the large-format camera took up so much room in the peersonnel
sphere!

The ship with Alvin then transited to Bermuda for some
public relations dives, followed by biological studies in
the canyons south of New England. It was during one of these
cruises that the terrorist events in New York occurred, forcing
our deep submergence assets to alter dive plans numerous times
in response to drastically increased Naval activity in the
area. Alvin continued diving, and the ship sailed south
to the Blake Outer Ridge for several final dives in the Atlantic
before transiting the Panama Canal and returning to the East
Pacific Rise to resume time series programs. Four cruises
were scheduled for the East Pacific Rise area in the fall
of 2001and early 2002. The focus of these cruises was the
extreme environment of hydrothermal vents and the effects
on the biology found there, as well as to study the Central
Anomaly Magnetic High, CAMH, along the fast-spreading East
Pacific Rise. The final cruise for 2001 departed Manzanillo,
Mexico in early December and facilitated investigation by
UCSB scientists of the evolutionary instability at two different
vent sites.

2002

We began the year by finishing a cruise which originated in
2001 at the East Pacific Rise, and then left immediately for
an NSF-funded cruise departing Manzanillo, Mexico during the
first week of January. During this voyage Alvin dove
25 times for UNH researchers to conduct geochemistry/biology
work at the Biotransect site. This cruise was followed by
a five-week maintenance period in San Diego which included
an Atlantis submersible handling system Navy certification
inspection. The first cruise following maintenance mid-March
was to take the vessel a short distance from San Diego for
IMAX filming of the sub launch sequence for inclusion in an
upcoming feature production on the deep sea. Unfortunately,
during the first dive the ship's two stern propulsion motors
developed electrical problems due to carbon buildup, requiring
them to be shut down before further damage resulted. Alvin
operations were suspended and the ship was towed back into
San Diego for five weeks of extensive repairs, including motor
replacement and testing. In late April the vessel was once
again readied for sea, new motors tested and the IMAX filming
completed. Somewhat behind schedule, the vessel headed south
to begin work on the East Pacific Rise.

The
first set of dives at the EPR were to conduct geology Alvin
dives that could not be made as originally scheduled in late
2001 due to viewport problems. This cruise terminated in the
Galapagos Islands, where a second science party embarked for
nine dives at the Galapagos Rift to commemorate the 25th anniversary
of the discovery of hydrothermal vents at that site. The area
looked quite different from our last visit, with many of the
biological communities wiped out by fresh lava flows and recent
tectonic activity. New areas of activity were discovered,
however, and new sites mapped and named.

In early June Atlantis transited north along the west
coast of the U.S. to Astoria, Oregon, where NOAA scientists
embarked for a leg to explore the biology and geology of selected
Gulf of Alaska seamounts. Afterward the vessel returned to
Astoria where the brand new Jason II ROV was loaded
aboard for a week of sea trials, which proceeded without a
hitch. Alvin instrumentation and auto-pilot control
software improvements were also tested during this period.
Two Alvin cruises in the Juan de Fuca region were conducted
in July/August, followed by a September cruise utilizing Jason
II, that vehicle's first science use, and two other non-Alvin
mooring trips. Heading south once again in mid-October, the
ship picked up a science party in San Diego and started the
last three cruises of the year, involving NSF-sponsored Alvin
dives and biological studies on or near the East Pacific Rise.
The year ended with Atlantis dropping the science investigators
in Puntarenas, Cost Rica before transiting the Panama Canal
and arriving in Miami New Year's Day 2003.

2003

Atlantis began 2003 in the shipyard undergoing maintenance
and a Navy in-service inspection. The first cruise after the
yard period supported engineering trials. Two dives were scheduled
and completed under the watchful eye of Barrie Walden, Group
Manager. Alvin scientific diving operations began in
early April with a 30-day voyage to the Lost City hydrothermal
field south of the Azores. The purpose of this leg was to sample
vents for fluid, microbes and chimney material, as well as characterize
the surrounding geology and tectonic setting. Eighteen dives
were scheduled and 21 dives were completed for the University
of Washington. Alvin Expedition Leader Pat Hickey completed
his 500th dive during this cruise.

Moving back to the New England Seamount area in late May,
Alvin collected deep-sea corals and bathymetry data
for CalTech researchers. Fifteen dives were scheduled, but
only 11 dives were completed due to extended bad weather.
Of those completed, several were made at a secondary seamount
because of continued bad weather at the primary seamount area.
In early June the ship and submersible returned to the TAG
site on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for deployment of WHOI seismic
and thermal monitoring equipment on and around a hydrothermal
mound. Six dives were originally scheduled but seven dives
were completed during this voyage. In July and August, two
cruises were conducted for NOAA Ocean Exploration dives off
the southeastern US coast. Thirteen dives were scheduled for
the two legs and all were completed.

After
an extended ship maintenance period in Woods Hole during August
and September, Atlantis transited to the Gulf of Mexico
where another NOAA party explored the ecology of cold seeps.
In late October Atlantis transited from Galveston through
the Panama Canal and boarded the next science party. From
Panama, a Field Museum of Chicago scientist and her party
surveyed vent fauna along the East Pacific Rise at 9 degrees
North. The final cruise for the year was to the East pacific
Rise at 9 North for researchers from the University of Delaware
and Harvard to conduct an analysis of microbial symbiosis
and deploy an in-situ electrochemical analyzer. The ship ended
the year with a transit from Manzanillo, Mexico to San Diego.

2004

A special year for our submersible, with two notable milestones
reached. A scheduled United States Coast Guard inspection
and a maintenance period in San Diego, California
led off this year.
We had one engineering dive before science operations began
28 January, which sent the ship south to the East Pacific
Rise, (EPR) to continue on-going research at Latitude 9 North
& Longitude 104 West. This RIDGE 2000 expedition characterized
geological features of the Central Anomaly Magnetic High,
(CAMH) and allowed further development, testing, & calibration
of an in-situ chemical sensor. An early March cruise for the
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) to the Costa Rican subduction
zone enabled researchers to collect samples from long term
bore-hole observatory sites. In March and April Atlantis
returned to the East Pacific Rise Integrated Study Site at
9 North. This series of dives focussed on hydrothermal fluid
chemistry, biological community structure and the seismic
activity of this ocean region. Alvin also completed
Dive 4,000 during this series.

In May the ship transited north to the Pacific Northwest's
Juan de Fuca Ridge area for several Alvin cruises and
three general oceanographic research cruises. The latter included
a voyage to deploy a prototype deep-water acoustically linked
seafloor observatory. In June, Alvin passed its 40th anniversary
since commissioning in 1964. Researchers off Oregon tested
an in-situ incubator designed to explore the limits
of life at submarine hydrothermal systems, and in July another
RIDGE 2000 Endeavor Integrated Study Site cruise used the
autonomous underwater vehicle ABE to measure the fluxes
of heat and materials that tie geological forcing to biological
responses. Atlantis supported a joint NSF/NOAA ECOHAB
cruise in September, and then transited south to San Diego
for a second scheduled maintenance period. The ship finished
the operating year with two Biocomplexity cruises featuring
Alvin dives on the East Pacific Rise.

2005

Alvin began 2005 with a short maintenance period
in San Diego. Our operating season started 14 January, with
the ship and submersible heading south of the equator to the
southern portion of the East Pacific Rise for both ROV and
Alvin operations. The first program, from Easter
Island to Tahiti, enabled researchers to locate and observe
geological outcrops at the Pito Deep. In March Atlantis/Alvin
continued work in the southern Pacific for researchers from
MBARI and William & Mary, who studied gene flow and species
diversity at hydrothermal vent communities. Data and samples
collected on this cruise will benefit undergraduate, graduate,
and post-doc students. In April Atlantis transited
north from Easter Island, crossing the equator once again
to the EPR at 9° N to continue the NSF-funded RIDGE 2000 Program.
This collaborative research program included biological community
structure experiments and seismic monitoring, and featured
educational and public outreach components.

The submersible next embarked on a NOAA Ocean Exploration
cruise to the Galapagos area in mid-May, transiting east-northeast
to study biological succession at hydrothermal vents along
the Galapagos Rift near 86° W. Atlantis headed to
the Costa Rica margin in early June for testing of instruments
designed by Scripps investigators that measure elemental fluid
flux from ocean floor boreholes. Later that month the ship
and sub transited north to the Pacific Northwest's Juan de
Fuca Ridge for continuation of 2004 non-Alvin research.
These cruises included a second joint-funded NSF/NOAA ECOHAB
cruise and a mooring recovery cruise to retrieve a prototype
deep-water acoustically-linked seafloor observatory. A two-week
maintenance period in August was followed by two Alvin
cruises on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. These projects included
the testing of sensors for in-situ analysis of ecosystems,
chemistry of hydrothermal vents and retrieval of data from
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program 2004 deployments. An ONR-funded
Alvin engineering dive was included in the earlier
of these cruises.

In late September Atlantis began transit back to
Woods Hole, only the third time the ship had been in her home
port since delivery in 1997! The final science leg of 2005
was for NOAA/NURP deep water coral investigations on the New
England seamounts. Upon completion of that work, Alvin
began a six-month scheduled major overhaul.

2006

Alvin began 2006 with the last portion of the
major overhaul started in early November of 2005. Work was completed in mid-April, and the
last two weeks of the month were spent conducting test and certification
dives in deep water near Bermuda.Upon completion of the test period, Alvin
and Atlantis returned to their
primary research support mission. Atlantis transited to the Gulf of
Mexico for Alvin dives for a joint
NOAA Ocean Exploration, NOAA Undersea Research Project, and Mineral Management
Services program. In June the ship transited through the Panama Canal to the Pacific where Alvin
was used to recover instruments that measure fluid flux through sediments on the Costa Rican margin.

In July Alvin began a series of cruises
along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts. The first cruise was one of two that utilized Alvin to study metazoan life
at extreme sulfide concentrations. The
next program moved to abyssal depths to deploy an autonomous bottom-transecting
instrument for making long time-series measurements. In mid-August Atlantis transited to the Juan de Fuca Ridge for an Alvin dive program to determine the
limits to life in submarine hydrothermal systems and a program to develop
“smart” sensors for in situ
monitoring of hydrothermal fluids. A
second Juan de Fuca Alvin dive
program was conducted for remedial cementing at two borehole observatories. Atlantis then transited south for a second Alvin
program to study metazoan life and a program characterizing the micro-organisms
at methane seeps.

After a short maintenance period in San Diego in mid-October, Alvin began a series of cruises on
the East Pacific Rise (EPR) with the first of two cruises that studied
oceanographic and topographic influences on dispersal of hydrothermal vent
species. In November Alvin continued a multidisciplinary
time series study of temporal variations in hydrothermal fluid chemistry at the
RIDGE2000 Integrated Studies Site at 9°N on the EPR. The year ended at the EPR with the second Alvin program to study dispersal of
hydrothermal vent communities.

2007

Atlantis
and Alvin began operating year
2007 at sea studying the dispersal of hydrothermal vent communities at the East
Pacific Rise (EPR). The educational and
outreach programs Dive and Discover and Women Exploring the Ocean were
featured on this cruise. Later in
January Alvin continued diving
operations at the EPR with a collaborative research project examining
biological community structure at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. This cruise included formal and informal education and outreach activities in collaboration
with NSF COSEE Centers and the Ridge 2000 education and outreach program.

Atlantis saw two non-Alvin voyages in February and March and
then began a 62-day shipyard period. In
late June, Alvin conducted three
engineering dives off San Diego before continuing with science operations. The engineering dives were required both to ensure system operability due to the
extended period (five months) of non-operability and to test new equipment and
procedures such as an Imagenex sonar calibration routine. Alvin was utilized during the month of July to study the microbial geochemistry of
natural marine gas seeps in the Catalina Channel. After another two non-Alvin legs, Atlantis transited to the Juan de Fuca (JdF) area in August, where Alvin operations continued in the main Endeavor Field looking
at the thermal biology of hydrothermal vent paralvinellid
worms and testing an underwater optical communication system. During September Atlantis and Alvin remained at JdF servicing borehole observatories and
continuing the study of hydrothermal vent flow and turbulence. Atlantis then transited south for a short maintenance period in San Diego.

In mid-October Atlantis steamed south to the Guaymas Basin and EPR vent sites where
Alvin was used to examine
protistan abundance, diversity and activity and to study the physiology and
molecular ecology of thermophilic nitrate-reducing microorganisms. Outreach
programs such as Extreme 2000 and Student Experiments at Sea were supported
during this cruise. Throughout November Alvin continued operations at the EPR studying oceanographic and topographic
influences on dispersal of hydrothermal vent species. In December Alvin dove on the EPR looking at
temporal variations in hydrothermal fluid chemistry. Alvin continued working at the EPR into early 2008, with a microbiological and
biogeochemistry study of filamentous-sulfur producing bacteria scheduled. This
final cruise of the year installed in-situ
chemical sensors for monitoring the chemistry of hydrothermal vent fluids and
supported the Dive and Discover education and outreach program.

2008

Alvin started operating year 2008, our 44th, at sea with researchers studying microbiology, biogeochemistry and testing chemical sensors of hydrothermal vent communities at the East Pacific Rise (EPR). The cruise ended in San Diego where Alvin was offloaded at the Scripps pier in preparation for a mandatory dry docking of Atlantis. Routine maintenance was be performed on Alvin while it was ashore, followed by an engineering dive during the transit to Mazatlan, Mexico, in late April. A non-Alvin cruise in the Gulf of California occupied the month of May. Alvin went back to work at the EPR in early June for a program using in situ voltametric analyzers to study hydrothermal vents, and subsequently a program to establish a long-term geodetic network at the Ridge 2000 Integrated Studies Site.

In late June Atlantis transited north from San Diego to Astoria, Oregon to begin work in the Juan de Fuca area. From Astoria, Atlantis and Alvin made three cruises to the ridge system, with multiple investigators on each cruise. The voyages combined a variety of programs, including the study of thermal biology of hydrothermal vent parAlvinellid worms; vent flow and turbulence monitoring; a continuing program at the ODP borehole observatories; testing optical communication sensors; modeling hyperthermophile growth and continuation of the NOAA-VENTS Research Program. The ship and sub completed work at Juan de Fuca in early September, then made engineering dives during the transit from Astoria back to San Diego.

Atlantis was out of service for a two-week period in San Diego in early October while the vessel underwent a Navy INSURV inspection. In the middle of the month Atlantis transited to Guaymas Basin for Alvin dives to study microbial carbon and sulfur cycling in hydrothermally altered sediments. The vessels continued work in Guaymas Basin and at the EPR for the remaining three cruises of the year. These hydrothermal vent expeditions included the study of protistan abundance, diversity and activity; metagenomic exploration of virus-host interactions in deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments; the abundance, diversity, and activity of microorganisms and microbiology and biogeochemistry of autotrophic microbes. Alvin was idle at end the year but Atlantis continued work with a geology leg to the Galapgos Triple Junction.

2009

Alvin began its 2009 operational year in February off Costa Rica supporting a cruise to retrieve instruments and stored data at an ODP borehole instrumented observatory. This first dive series also included an Alvin engineering dive. The submersible then continued work in that area into March on a second cruise with scientists from SIO in support of studies of structure, function and evolution of authigenic, methane-derived carbonate ecosystems. Following these programs Atlantis returned to San Diego and entered a maintenance period, while Alvin had its annual Navy sustaining certification survey. In May Atlantis transited from San Diego to Astoria, OR, conducting a non-Alvin science program on the Juan de Fuca Ridge en route.

Alvin began a series of three diving legs on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in late June. The first voyage supported interdisciplinary research modeling hyperthermophile growth in deep-sea hydrothermal sulfide deposits and diffuse fluids, and featured a second Alvin engineering dive. Next scientists from WSU utilized collaborative research to look at the thermal biology of hydrothermal vent paralvinellid worms. The last of these legs pursued large-scale, long-term, multi-directional, cross-hole experiments in the upper oceanic crust using a borehole observatory network. The vessel and vehicle transited south in early September for a program in the Catalina Basin off Santa Barbara, where investigators from UCSB studied microbial geochemistry of natural marine gas seeps.

Atlantis entered a second maintenance period for two weeks in early October. Departing San Diego in the middle of the month, Atlantis conducted another non-Alvin program, taking the vessel to Guaymas, Mexico. Two Alvin science programs were conducted in the Guaymas Basin from November to early December. The first saw investigators from UNC studying microbial carbon and sulfur cycling in the hydrothermally altered sediments of Guaymas Basin. On the second cruise scientists from Portland State examined the distribution and diversity of thermoacidophiles from deep-sea vents. Atlantis and Alvin finished the year with a cruise off the west coast of Mexico where researchers tested models of magma movement along the East Pacific Rise using combined geodetic and numerical experiments.

2010

Alvin started the 2010 operational year at sea with investigators establishing a long-term geodetic network and testing models of magma movement at the East Pacific Rise. After a brief stop in Costa Rica, the submersible continued work just offshore with scientists from SIO studying the structure, function and evolution of authigenic, methane-derived carbonate ecosystems. Following these programs Atlantis transited south to Iquique, Chile, where investigators from USC boarded to start a non-Alvin cruise to document nitrogen fixation in nitrogen-deficient waters of the Eastern Tropical South Pacific.

In March the ship transited to the Galapagos to begin a 31-day voyage for University of Hawaii researchers studying the effect of variable magma supply on eruption and magma chamber processes on mid-ocean ridges. AUV Sentry was used in conjunction with Alvin on this cruise, along with multibeam surveying and dredging. In mid-April the ship transited north to San Diego and entered a brief maintenance period. Alvin had its annual Navy sustaining certification survey during this period, and Atlantis had a USCG inspection.

Another non-Alvin cruise began in mid-May, this time taking scientists off the coast of California to explore air quality and climate change as part of NOAA's CalNex 2010 field program. After a port stop in San Francisco, a series of one Jason and two Alvin cruises took the ship northward to the Juan de Fuca area. The first voyage studied the microbial ecology of ocean basement aquifers at ODP borehole observatories and large-scale, long-term, multi-directional, cross-hole experiments in the upper oceanic crust with investigators from Hawaii and UC Santa Cruz. The next leg allowed scientists from Washington State, WHOI and the University of Washington to look at thermal biology of hydrothermal vent paralvinellid worms, conduct resistivity probe deployments at the Endeavour Integrated Study Site and test a CORK optical telemetry system. The final leg in this area took Scripps researchers off the coast of Oregon to explore the structure, function and evolution of authigenic, methane-derived, carbonate ecosystems.

In mid-August Atlantis transited from San Diego to Woods Hole, arriving at her home port for the first time in more than four years. The next two voyages were non-Alvin on the Nova Scotian continental shelf. The first trip took WHOI scientists for deployment/recovery of bottom-tethered sediment trap moorings, hydrographic sampling of bottom and intermediate-depth nepheloid layers via CTD/Niskin rosette and multicoring of surface sediments. The second leg supported a sustained measurement program sampling the North Atlantic Deep Western Boundary Current and the Gulf Stream. The ship transited to Galveston in early November, where scientists from Georgia embarked to set up a microbial observatory in the Gulf of Mexico examining microbial abundance, diversity, associations and activity at seafloor brine seeps. The final cruise of the year was an effort to gauge the response of benthic hard bottom communities to oil exposure in the deep Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill earlier in the year.

The ship transited back to Woods Hole in early December to offload Alvin in preparation for the major upgrade.

2011 - 2012

During this two-year period Alvin was completely disassembled and upgraded with several notable improvements, including:

A new, larger personnel sphere with an ergonomic interior designed to improve comfort on long dives

Five viewports (instead of the former three) to improve visibility and provide overlapping fields of view for the pilot and two observers

New lighting and high-definition imaging systems

New syntactic foam for buoyancy

An improved command and control system

The personnel sphere was forged from titanium ingots in Wisconsin, machined and welded in California, heat treated in Ohio, pressure tested in Maryland and underwent final assembly in Texas before being shipped to Woods Hole. It is an inch thicker than the previous sphere, and has 27 cubic feet more interior voulme. Alvin's titanium frame was modified in New Jersey to accept the new sphere, and new syntactic foam was manufactured and installed to float the increased submersible weight. All thrusters are now releaseable in the event of entanglement, as are the manipulators, batteries and science basket. High definition cameras and LED lights have been added, and fiberoptic cables transmit high quality video signals to recorders within the sphere.

2013

Final assembly of the submersible continued into the early months of 2013. Most of our efforts in late winter and early spring were concentrated on obtaining certification of vehicle subsytems from the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), our certifying authority. Several subsystems, notably life support, received extra scrutiny from NAVSEA engineers due to their critical importance, which delayed approval. As the ship departure date in mid-May approached, we were obligated to postpone in-water testing of the submersible until after a series of non-Alvin cruises. The sub was loaded aboard Atlantis, and the vessel sailed for Panama and the west coast.

During the summer and early fall months we continued to work with NAVSEA on certification issues. Technicians aboard Atlantis were able to finish several small projects to get the sub ready for diving.

NAVSEA completed its review of submersible designs and approved the systems as safe for use in November. Inclining/stability testing was conducted in San Diego, followed by harbor trials. Alvin next conducted ocean trials, diving to progressively greater depths, and successfully completed a certification dive with a NAVSEA observer to a depth of 3,729 meters on November 18. Lack of proximal deeper water and additional cruise time precluded completion of a deeper certification dive on that voyage. It is anticipated the sub will be able to make a certification dive to our design depth of 4,500 meters sometime during the 2014 operating season.

2014

Following the January Jason cruise at the East Pacific Rise, Atlantis transited through the Panama Canal to New Orleans, LA, arriving in early February. After a month-long maintenance period, the Alvin operations team mobilized in mid-March in support of a science verification cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. This voyage engaged a group of interested scientists from across the US HOV-user community to conduct a series of scientific investigations that made increasingly complex demands of the upgraded HOV, in pursuit of real-world scientific objectives, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new vehicle and its readiness to resume National Deep Submergence Facility operations. All scientific instrumentation on the submersible was tested and crew training on the upgraded vehicle continued.

Departing from Gulfport, MS at the end of March, the first purely science voyage of 2014 took the vessel, submersible, and University of Georgia researchers to the northern Gulf of Mexico to sample brine seeps located at water depths between 800 and 3,200 m along the continental slope. Depth profiles of brine were collected using a novel sampling device, the 'brine trapper'. Several 'brine traps' were collected at each site to obtain samples for microbiological and biogeochemical characterization. Monitoring instrumentation, including insitu rotary cameras and thermistor strings were deployed at the sampling sites for recovery one year later.

The next cruise departed at the end of April from Gulfport for physiological and genetic response studies of the deep-water coral, Lophelia pertusa, to ongoing ocean acidification in the Gulf of Mexico. Temple University scientists collected samples at five different sites across the northern Gulf of Mexico, and also utilized AUV Sentry for large-scale surveys. Additional water samples were taken using the CTD rosette to characterize the carbonate chemistry of the water column. This voyage was followed by a month-long trip to the Florida Escarpment seeps, brine pools and Alaminos Canyon for characterization of hydrography, larval abundance and distributions, and population genetics of seeps in the intra-American sea to determine processes and dynamics of connectivity. Duke University researchers mapped seep sites in the Gulf of Mexico with Sentry and sampled benthos for reproductive biology and genetic analysis with the submersible. The ship returned to St. Petersburg, FL in mid-June.

After a transit to the west coast, Alvin resumed operations on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in mid- July. A collection of scientists from LDEO, the University of Minnesota and WHOI deployed new instrumentation at Axial volcano to accurately measure the heat and mass flux of hydrothermal vent fluids and tested two seafloor camera systems that measure fluid flow in mid-ocean ridge systems. The second and last Alvin voyage of the year to the Juan de Fuca eastern flank occurred in August when University of Alaska researchers completed the final phase of borehole monitoring, sampling, and experiments at IODP drilling sites. Scientists also completed a final round of wellhead fluid and microbial sampling, downloaded pressure data from CORKs, recovered the remaining OsmoSampler systems deployed on wellheads, and recovered a wellhead flowmeter.

Three non-Alvin cruises took the ship to San Francisco, with arrival in mid-October. A NAVSEA submersible and launch/recovery system audit took place during a short port stay, followed by a transit to Manzanillo, Mexico. There scientists from WHOI and the University of Tampa embarked for a cruise to the East Pacific Rise to deploy the VENT-TSSID instrument to measure in situ carbon fixation and nitrate reduction rates. In addition, they studied activity at ‘Crab Spa’, a diffuse flow vent site that has been used by the investigators as a model system to gain insights into chemoautotrophic processes and has been frequently sampled over the last several years.

The final Alvin cruise of 2014 visited the Dorado Outcrop off Costa Rica in December for sampling and quantification of flows from cool yet massive ridge-flank hydrothermal springs. Investigators from the University of Alaska located and sampled low temperature sites using the submersible and multibeam bathymetry. The vessel ended the operating year transiting to Arica, Chile.

To be continued!

WHOI is the world's leading non-profit oceanographic research organization. Our mission is to explore and understand the ocean and to educate scientists, students, decision-makers, and the public.